My photo taken in 2015.
NOT these cherry trees
My social-media feeds this week are full of outrage over the destruction of 60-some cherry blossom trees in D.C., with at least half of the posts incorrectly referring to them as the trees around the Tidal Basin. So to correct the record, I offer the Cherry Blossom Festival map. The trees being removed are in East Potomac Park, specifically the ones near the East Potomac Park Golf Course that’s being enlarged, etc. (Who knows what exactly?)
Left photo: found on Reddit, source uncredited. Right: Kevin Carter/Getty, seen in People Magazine.
Unlike the Tidal Basin, East Potomac Park isn’t photographed much, but I found these two photos of the golf course, even one with the cherry trees blooming.
And from People Magazine we learn these details:
- “’Arborists are doing routine maintenance at East Potomac Park with selective removal of hazard trees, non-native invasive trees, and declining and dying trees that cannot be brought back to good health through any degree of intervention,’ an Interior Department spokesperson said in a statement to PEOPLE.”
- “U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes declined to stop the government from performing necessary maintenance back in May, but told administration lawyers that she wanted advance notice before the government removed more than 10 trees or brought major equipment onto park property, the outlet reported, citing a hearing in May on the lawsuit.”
- “The trees, gifted from Japan, arrived in Washington in January 1910 and were planted in a remote section of what is now East Potomac Park.”
- “Overall, the new plans show the East Potomac Golf Links being expanded about 50 acres into parkland that is currently being used for picnicking, fishing, cycling and other recreational activities, the newspaper [Washington Post] reported on June 30.”
Photo Credit: National Links Trust
Could it be worse than we thought?
So if you’re thinking the correct location is not as bad as you initially thought, I’ll quote a Threads poster who seems knowledgeable:
Ok people stop with the cherry trees. It’s almost worse. When cherry trees were removed a while back to restore the sinking side of the tidal basin, they propagated them at a place in Maryland and just announced soon they’d start replanting.
The trees at the golf course some are saying are legacy trees. This is worse as they are 100-year-old trees that we can’t propagate. But the disinformation needs to stop. It is murky on approval to do this and there might be some cherry blossom trees damaged.
As well, these are big mature trees. They are not building a golf course on the Tidal Basin. We can be angry but need to be informative.
Photo credit: National Park Service.
Golf courses get cultural landscape studies?
Sure enough, the University of Pennsylvania studied all three federal golf courses in Washington, D.C. and produced a cultural landscape study about them. Even as a nongolfer, I found it surprisingly interesting.
It doesn’t seem that you finished the article. Or answered the question. Why were the trees cut down? The trees were part of the golf course. Disease, size, explanation, or someone didn’t like, what was the reason?
Thanks for asking. In the first bullet item from the people magazine story the administration is saying it was routine maintenance. But the last bullet item implies that trees are being removed to enlarge the golf course. So we conclude things based on limited information, per usual.
So, enlarging a stupid golf course is more important than keeping those 50 acres open for public use – walking, picnicking and biking? What selfish, ignorant people thought of this, I wonder? It doesn’t seem to matter that the trees were a gift from another country. I can understand taking down trees that are diseased, or beyond saving but not healthy trees to make room for a larger golf course that will have limited, most likely expensive use. Even if the information is conflicting, I would be surprised to hear it was simply the first reason and not the second. Just one more thing to mourn.
Thank you for clearing this up. I can’t say I feel better, though. They’ve cut down the Roosevelt and Harding Magnolias for the ballroom BS. They’ve cut down the weeping Sycamore at the JFK Memorial Center. They’ve demolished the Rose Garden and now paving over the damned lawn for a helipad. Tell Melania to get some sneakers and she won’t have an issue w her spikes and the lawn.
Snopes has a comprehensive article about what is going on:
https://www.snopes.com/news/2026/09/01/trump-dc-cherry-trees/
I just found out about this and was concerned, so I did my best to do some research.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/158-cherry-blossom-trees-will-be-cut-down-in-dc-in-effort-to-withstand-sea-level-rise-180983999/
According to this article, they were being planned to be cut down due to sea level rise or something like that. And plan to replant more. I’m hoping this is the case and not for a golf course expansion.